U.S. WARNS MARCOS AGAINST PLOTTING TO OVERTHROW AQUINO

By Don OberdorferJuly 8, 1987

The Reagan administration warned former Philippine president Ferdinand E. Marcos this week not to abuse his status as a guest in this country by seeking to destabilize the successor government of President Corazon Aquino, administration sources said last night.

The warning was delivered to Marcos at his home in Honolulu yesterday and Monday by State Department legal adviser Abraham D. Sofaer and a Justice Department official, the sources said.

Washington Post special correspondent Walter Wright reported from Honolulu that Sofaer had been accompanied by William S. Craig, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Hawaii, and that Marcos was warned not to leave the United States.

Washington sources said the warnings were motivated in part by recordings of discussions with an arms dealer indicating Marcos was actively plotting to topple the Aquino government and return to power.

When Marcos was granted permission to live in the United States following his fall from power in February 1986, it was made clear to him that it would be impermissible for him to be involved in plotting activities aimed at overthrowing a friendly government such as that in the Philippines, officials recalled.

He was also told that his return to the Philippines would have to be worked out with the Aquino government and that, in the absence of such approval, the United States would not be a party to his departing from U.S. soil, the officials said.

Sofaer is reported to have forcefully reminded Marcos of those conditions in his conversations with the deposed Philippine leader.

A further complication for Marcos is that he is under subpoena from a federal grand jury in Alexandria investigating charges of corruption in connection with military contracts in the Philippines while Marcos was president.

Marcos has resisted appearing in Alexandria for health reasons, but the subpoena is another reason why U.S. officials insist he not leave the country without permission.